However, the real shift in 2024 Real Estate lies not in tech, but in the increasing recognition among agents, advocates, buyers, and sellers of the value in collaboration and healthy ethical competition & bespoke thought.

Do you want your agent to be a mind numbing, tough guy, shiny suit liar? Do you think that adds value to your bottom line? I can assure you it rarely does at the Top End; as experienced buyers handle like with like and drop their starting offer a lot, to allow for a bullshit interim period. Often the one trick pony, the tough guy liar, moves on tired before getting a real deal for his client. The only deal got, was the one deserved, by those who hired him.

Here is my favourite real estate agent joke in recent times. Two blokes in suits show up, expecting a favourable hearing from the joint decision maker. And the follow up laugh: Two blokes in suits show up with a token female who says nothing and weakens then tenuous position even further.

Engage proven, experienced, ethical and modern buying and selling agents. Ones who can lead when they have to, follow the norms when it makes sense, but also think left and right, go, hold and no; and even share when a better deal is there for you. these are the ones in 2024 that will get you a better deal.

It’s like a great footy team – there needs to be healthy competition for spots at times and other times it’s what best for the team owners (you the client).

This “and” ethos, such as

• 111 Sackville – took over a year to manage the deal – brilliantly marketed Marcus Chiminello and brilliantly sold James Tostevin.
• 26 Kooyongkoot – failed to sell previous year with 2 high profile agents and we were called in and recommended we jointly work with Forbes – the home feel and marketing was completely transformed in a tougher market and in particular Rob Fletcher was special.
• 3383 Point Nepean – the buyers just needed confidence there was a lot more to this home than the market perceived and a win-win was negotiated through Andrew McCann and Emil Foller with Gina Kantzas.

consistently yields superior outcomes for many involved, challenging the outdated practices that have long plagued our industry such as collusion, secrecy, isolation and lies; best evidenced by under quoting or stupid commissions that were once considered the superior real estate model, but now fail more than they succeed. Of course, if a competing agent or other party wants to play a lose-win situation we are happy to oblige.

There’s a growing preference among younger agents for a transparent, ethical and bespoke approach over the traditional corporate “Woolworths and Coles” agent model.

But it’s also smarter – how can you best service a buyer or seller when your entire week revolves around robotic calls, with robotic scripts and no thinking outside the dots, because you have no time, because you are doing too much for too little. How can you have a great and long career when turning up for work has no fun and little meaning!

Many a corporate real estate model is Machine Learning without the Learning and Artificial Intelligence without the Intelligence. But it doesn’t have to be like this and the big scaremongering cries of “don’t risk the bespoke,” no longer hold water, when you see the market contrarian results James Buy Sell (and others, not just us) had in the last quarter of 2024, compared to the market.

This yearning for authenticity also extends to buyers and sellers, who now demand and appreciate deals that are tailored to their unique desires and circumstances, distancing themselves from the one-size-fits-all marketing strategies that no longer resonate, because they no longer work as well.

As we embark on 2024, our message is clear: there’s a better way than a slab of marketing, defrosted from the freezer and chucked on the table, stating it is à la carte. By combining intelligent, personalized and sometimes longer-term campaigns and collaborating meaningfully with the agility of smaller, boutique agencies, a buyer and a seller can achieve remarkable bespoke results— sometimes as an alternative to big corporate, sometimes as a complementary strategy that elevates the entire buying and selling process above junk food!

Stay tuned for next week’s discussion, where we’ll explore the advantages of bespoke, one-on-one service offerings in greater detail. But in the meantime, check out these graphs below. They show you that just relying on the market does not guarantee a standard 8% each year; in fact, relying on the market alone, no longer gets your dream home bought or sold. How you buy and sell and what you buy and sell, is proving to be far more important than the market.

Things are changing. James Buy Sell is changing, the market is changing, and the question in 2024 for buyers, sellers, and agents is: are you changing, or are you simply doing a makeover and being left behind?